19 



Virginia Point, Texas, March 20tJi, 1878. 



To J. CuKTis Waldo, 46 Ca:mp Street, Xew Orleans : Your circular 

 letter of 1st of December last, has just been placed in my hands, and but 

 little time is left me to reply to your several questions. I have planted 

 cotton (both long and short staple) over thirty-five years in this state. 

 For the first ten years of this time the worms made their appearance about 

 every third year sooner or later in the season, doing more or less damage 

 to the cotton crops. In 1846 not more than one tenth of an ordinary crop 

 was made in South Eastern Texas. All plantations in that year fared alike 

 in this portion of our State. 



The worms are generally worse in wet seasons. The cotton moth will 

 locate about the center of the field in the heaviest cotton and will spread 

 from that point to the borders, though the last year (the worst in any ex- 

 perinece since 1846), they enfiladed the crops in the season of a severe 

 drouth, four broods of worms followed in cLuick succession and those who 

 used no poison in this section gathered but little cotton. An unfailing sign 

 of their first appearance is the sight of the moth (distinctly marked and 

 differing from all other millers), among the cotton plants or in the grass or 

 weeds adjacent. There is no known or well established method of destroy- 

 ing the moth, while on the wing, unless it is by fire, lights properly ad- 

 justed to attract them in the night time and drown them in coal oil, tar or 

 molasses and vinegar. In this connection I may here refer to the pros- 

 pectus or circular of Mr. E. H. Fortand of Flatonia in this State, who 

 claims to have invented a complete insect annihilator of the winged tribe, 

 by means of movable torches, accompanied with traps filled with oil into 

 which the unwary insect falls. He has a jjatent issued to him in October 

 last, but yet lacking a full and fair test. 



When the worm webs up on the cotton plant it falls upon the ground 

 and by means of a plixus, augur or gimlet shaped, it bores its hiding place 

 in the earth and in a comatose state, awaits the season of molting, when it 

 bursts its shell, spreads its wings and goes forth on its destructive mission, 



I have used every formula of compound, designed for its destruction and 

 especially arsenic with many combinations and have never failed to kill 

 the cotton plant as well as the worm. There are some, who claim to have 

 used the powder or arsenic of commerce with good results. 



Paris green will kill the worm and save the plant — but it is very expen- 

 sive and often much adulterated. It was my misfortune in 1873 to lose 150 

 acres of sea island cotton at this place, by purchasing of a druggist of Gal- 

 veston a spurious article of Paris green. I brought suit for damages, but 

 a wise judge drove me from the portals of justice with the cruel sentence 

 of caveat emptor. 



To your last inquiry I have no hesitation in affirming after full and re- 

 peated experiments, with the " Texas Cotton Worm Destroyer," that it is 

 the cheapest and most effective agent for the destruction of the cotton 



